1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed generally to a zone coated adhesive strip material for removably securing connecting conductor devices such as electrical or electronic cables in place, particularly for use during temporary or short-term hookups. This includes securing bunches of parallel conductor cables such as are commonly used in temporarily set up exhibits in convention centers, entertainment hookups, in auditoriums, night clubs, stadiums, or the like. In particular, the invention is directed to a novel strip material having spaced parallel adhesive bands along both edges of one side thereof for temporarily securing a cable or cables in place on a surface without adhering to the cables themselves.
2. Description of the Related Art
Everyone is familiar with the great proliferation of electrical and electronic devices for use in all types of environments in both permanent and temporary hookups. These include networking systems for a plurality of personal computers, the familiar many-cabled mazes for complex audio systems transported in for rock concerts, or the like, and those for sound stages or any one of a multitude of other similar applications. One thing all these installations or hookups have in common is the need for running anywhere from one up to a very large number of cables between various components of the system. Because of the wide variance in environments which these set ups must necessarily encounter, the associated wires and cables must pass over a great variety of surface materials. Simply stringing the cables between the various devices will provide the required electronic connections; however, it also presents an immense safety hazard and is, in most cases, prohibited. These cables are quite often underfoot where people have to walk, and those traversing the vicinity may trip over them and be injured and/or accidentally unhook one or more connections.
Such installations normally require that the cables be grouped together as much as possible and covered by some type of protective retaining material where it is at all likely that someone might encounter loose cables and trip over them during the term the set up is in place. Traditionally, in fact, for over four decades, the main material utilized to cover and/or secure cables in such installations is the familiar woven backed adhesive material generally referred to as "duct tape". This material got its name, of course, from its long-term use in covering the joints between sections of sheet metal duct work associated with forced air heating, ventilating and air conditioning installations. Because the material is easy to use, sticks to a variety of surfaces and is readily available, it has long been used for installations associated with the entertainment/communications and information dissemination hookups of the class described. In fact, within the motion picture industry, there are certain workers who are responsible for installing and arranging the lighting on motion picture sets known as gaffers. These gaffers have used a material which is a slight modification of traditional duct tape so long that it has come to be known over the years as "gaffer's tape".
While the duct tape or gaffer's tape successfully covers and retains the cables of interest and has provided a reasonably acceptable installation method, it suffers from certain important drawbacks. One side of the tape is completely covered with a rather strong adhesive such that adhesive material attaches and adheres to the surfaces of cables being retained under the tape. When the tape is removed, adhesive material often sticks to and remains on the cables, making them more difficult to handle for removal, storage and reinstallation elsewhere. In fact, over a period of time, this material builds up and must, at great difficulty and cost, be periodically removed as by solvent cleaning which is destructive to the cable material. In addition, the adhesive material associated with duct or gaffer tape, when allowed to remain in place over a period of time, becomes increasingly difficult to remove from many surfaces such as carpeting, wooden floors and painted surfaces. Removal thereafter may cause damage in terms of retained residue or actual damage to the surface itself in removing material such as paint or carpet fibers from the surface to which the tape is caused to adhere.
Other prior tapes exist which include types of tapes in which the adhesive material is not continuous throughout at least one surface of the tape. These include a tape material illustrated and described in U.S. Pat. No. 1,726,744, in the form of a paper or cloth tape having an adhesive on one edge of each of the opposing sides for use in masking for painting automobile bodies, or other such surfaces. Patents to Steinert (U.S. Pat. No. 1,923,513), Evans (U.S. Pat. No. 2,349,709), and Lesser (U.S. Pat. No. 2,387,593) disclose tape materials having intermittently spaced stripes containing adhesive material. Other tapes include tapes of woven fiberglass and other materials. There remains a need, however, for a readily installable, readily removable tape which has sufficient strength to retain cables of the class described in place during the use of an entertainment installation, or the like, but which is flexible and can be readily removed when desired and readhered and which, at the same time, does not adhere to the cables or wires itself or damage adjacent surfaces.